[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 53 (Thursday, March 19, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1825-S1827]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, like my colleague from Missouri, I also 
rise to address the Nation's response to the COVID-19 virus. In 
particular, I want to discuss the next steps we need to take at the 
Federal level to deal with this health emergency and the severe 
economic dislocation resulting from it.
  Before I offer my comments, I want to offer some thanks. I want to 
thank the Senate staff and all those in the Capitol who are working 
here under tough circumstances.
  I notice that the pages are not here, and that is because the Senate 
has wisely decided that, while we ought to be here doing the people's 
business, even at some risk to ourselves, the young people who would 
normally be here should be home with their families.
  I want to thank healthcare workers all across the United States. They 
are doing very difficult work right now, and they are doing it under 
very stressful circumstances. So many people who work at our healthcare 
facilities are there trying to protect patients. They have kids in 
schools that have been closed, and they are grappling with where their 
own children are during the day and whether they can find childcare 
during what would normally be the school day. I particularly want to 
thank them.
  Finally, I want to thank the American public. I will return to this 
point at the end of my comments.
  We are not an authoritarian nation. There are steps that other 
nations are taking with respect to this virus, where they can sort of 
order or quarantine in ways that we can't here. What we do here depends 
upon the consent of the governed, and the guidelines about social 
distancing, for example, require some significant sacrifice. 
Overwhelmingly, I see Americans taking steps to make that sacrifice, 
and I want to thank them.
  I applaud the bipartisan work that Congress has done with the White 
House in the past 2 weeks to pass two important laws. We passed the 
supplemental appropriations bill, providing more than $8 billion to 
invest in our public health response with resources for States, 
territories, and Tribes, investments in vaccine development and 
testing, and other key health priorities.
  Just yesterday, the Senate passed the second piece of legislation to 
provide emergency relief for workers and their families: paid sick 
leave, extended unemployment insurance, and other measures. But we 
still have so much more to do, and I am going to be very candid about 
this.
  I offer these thoughts as a former mayor and Governor who has 
overseen significant emergency response efforts in my city and in my 
State: hurricanes, floods, mass shootings, the H1N1 epidemic, and the 
economic collapse of 2008 and 2009. While those give me a perspective 
on what must be done, I have to acknowledge that the current challenge 
is a massive one, arguably bigger than any I have seen in my life. 
Because it is so big, it will require unusual degrees of innovation and 
cooperation, and the need for that innovation and cooperation is 
urgent.
  I got off a phone call this morning--and I am sure all 100 of my 
colleagues are making calls like this. I got on the phone with my 
fellow Virginia Senator, Mr. Warner, to talk to Virginia's hospitals. 
Now, Virginia is a State that, economically, is pretty well off. It 
generally tends to have top-quarter per-capita income for a significant 
metropolitan area, but the stories from my hospitals were just, 
frankly, shocking.
  They can't get tests to test patients who are presenting with 
symptoms of COVID-19. If they have tests, they don't have the swabs to 
administer the test or they don't have some of the chemical components 
needed so that once a swab is taken, they can run the test to determine 
whether somebody has the virus or not.
  They don't have masks. Hospitals were telling me that masks, which 
they would normally buy for about $1 apiece, are now being charged at 
$9 apiece with severely limited quantities.

  Major hospitals in a major metropolitan area like Northern Virginia, 
on the testing front--one of my hospitals said they got enough tests 
from their main supplier to test 40 people. That lasted for about 2 
days. And when they said ``We need more tests,'' the supplier said 
``Well, look, we only have so much that we can distribute. That is all 
you get.''
  When I heard this story, one after the next--and I know I live in a 
nation with not only the best healthcare providers but the best 
healthcare institutions in the world--I had to ask myself: Where am I? 
Is this the United States of America, where a hospital treating people 
on a global pandemic cannot get a mask, cannot get a swab, cannot get a 
test? Why are nations like South Korea and Australia and the United 
Kingdom so much more able to do things this country should be able to 
do?
  I don't think we should become normalized or just accept that. I 
think this is so profound a question about why this Nation, with the 
best healthcare providers and the best healthcare institutions in the 
world, is so far behind other nations. So let me offer these 
recommendations--blunt recommendations--for the road ahead.
  First, in the words of the Hippocratic Oath, do no harm. The 
administration lost 6 to 8 weeks in responding to this crisis--critical 
time that was used productively by other nations--because the President 
continually downplayed the threat of COVID-19.
  No American has a louder microphone than he does, and again and again 
he downplayed the threat, suggested it was contained, suggested 
everyone would be tested, suggested it was a hoax, and suggested the 
Democrats or the Chinese or the media were blowing it out of 
proportion. Whether his comments were due to ignorance or a political 
desire to hide bad news is irrelevant.
  I was shocked that the President submitted a budget to Congress on 
February 10, when the virus's global spread was clear to all, that 
dramatically cut funding for key public health agencies--the NIH, CDC, 
HHS--and our investments in global partnerships like the World Health 
Organization. The White House foolishly eliminated the global health 
security team at the National Security Council that was set up after 
the Ebola crisis to practically deal with pandemics like COVID-19.
  I remain stunned--stunned--that the President's lawyers are still in 
court all over this country attempting to repeal the Affordable Care 
Act to take healthcare away from millions of Americans. There is never 
a good time--never--to take an ax to the public health infrastructure 
and scheme to take away people's health insurance, but there is surely 
no worse time to do it--to take an ax to the public health 
infrastructure and take away people's health insurance--than during a 
global pandemic.
  So my recommendations here are pretty simple. Quit lying and 
downplaying the threat. Let the trusted scientists and public health 
leaders in your administration take center stage.
  In recent days, the President seems to have adopted this approach, 
thank goodness, and it is long overdue. Congress should ignore the 
President's budget that urged foolish cuts to our public health 
infrastructure, and the

[[Page S1826]]

administration should cease efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care 
Act.
  One more thing: Quit the inflammatory China-bashing. Did this virus 
originate in China? Yes. But, Mr. President, that does not excuse your 
weeks and weeks of tweeting lies and misinformation about the virus, 
while the leaders of other nations were taking steps to make sure their 
populations could be safe.
  The fact that the virus originated in China does not excuse the 
massive missteps that have led to the United States being so far behind 
other nations in the world in the ability to provide testing--basic 
testing--to citizens, including citizens who have serious signs of 
illness. The President's decision to call this the China virus or Wuhan 
virus or other epithets that he and members of his team have used are a 
crass effort to deflect blame away from the acceptance of 
responsibility that a President should have.
  The buck stops with you, Mr. President. You cannot blame this on 
anyone else. You have to own responsibility. You should stop 
inflammatory China-bashing that is exposing Asian Americans in this 
country to prejudice.
  The second thing we need to do is continue to focus, first and 
foremost, on managing the public health crisis presented by COVID-19. 
The economic dislocation is significant. We are working on a package 
with respect to that now. I am going to talk about it in a minute, but 
no economic intervention will work if the American public continues to 
lack confidence in our public health response. And a strong public 
health response that will effectively manage the spread of this virus 
and coordinate medical care for those affected will be the single best 
strategy for enabling the economy to get back on track.

  To accomplish this public health goal, we need to have strong policy 
at the Federal level to make--continue to make--science-based 
recommendations on the extent and timing of social distancing 
guidelines.
  We need to overcome the shockingly poor start to testing Americans 
for the virus. Testing helps us flatten the curve of the infection so 
that our health system is not overwhelmed, and it also helps reduce 
anxiety by giving people information about their status so they know 
what to do.
  Americans are used to being tested. If we feel ill, we go to a 
doctor. We get a test to see if we have a flu. We get a test to see if 
we have pneumonia. We get our children tested to see if they have strep 
throat. We are used to this, and when we see it happening around the 
globe, and when we hear the President and Vice President say that 
everybody will get tested, but when people call their healthcare 
providers and are told that there are no tests or see drive-thru 
testing sites, such as ones we had in Hampton Roads, shut down after a 
day and a half because they ran out of tests, it tremendously raises 
their anxiety.
  We need to continue the good work that is already being done to 
accelerate the development of a safe and effective vaccine. We need to 
make sure that our hospitals and healthcare providers have the 
resources they need to treat sick people and protect their frontline 
health workers.
  Finally, this is looking down the road a bit, but I think it is 
important that we think about it now. Policymakers should try to 
develop the science-based criteria that will enable them to confidently 
tell Americans when it is time to return to normal social and economic 
activity. I remember President Bush doing that at some point after 9/
11. He said: It is now safe. It is time for Americans to go back to 
normal, everyday activity. A strong signal of that type, when it is 
warranted by science, will be critical--critical--to our recovery. That 
day may be weeks or months away, but developing the criteria that we 
can agree on that should be the signal for a return to relevant 
normalcy is something we should all be working on right now.
  Third, we should make full use of State and local governments. 
Polling shows that Americans are skeptical about what they hear about 
this virus from President Trump and, indeed, Washington. But the same 
poll shows that they do have trust in how State and local officials are 
handling this crisis. Use the network of State and local officials to 
communicate clear messages. Continuously seek their input on how their 
schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and local economies are affected. 
That is what I am doing every day, and I suspect every Member of the 
Senate is doing the same thing--conference calls with leaders around my 
State to make sure that we are doing the things that are most helpful. 
And we should reality test any legislation, especially an economic 
package, with these leaders to make sure it is responsive to the real 
needs they are seeing on the ground.
  Fourth, Congress needs to move promptly to pass this strong economic 
package, backstopping the American economy from being ravaged by COVID-
19.
  In 2008, structural issues like the accumulation of debt, bad public 
policy leaving huge swaths of economic transactions unregulated, and 
predatory mortgage practices helped bring down not only the American 
but the global financial system.
  Today, the American economy has been performing relatively well, and 
it now labors under a severe healthcare shock. There is reason to 
believe that, once we get the healthcare strategy right, we will be 
poised for the economy to resume its upward trajectory. But we must 
provide protection and support in the meantime.
  I believe that the focus of an economic package should be workers and 
small businesses. They are the most vulnerable to the current challenge 
and most in need of intervention.
  This is the message that I am hearing again and again as I talk to 
Virginia residents and business leaders. I had a wonderful conversation 
with the president of my statewide chamber of commerce the other day, 
and he said candidly: Look, more of our members are actually medium and 
large businesses, but the most important thing you can do is focus on 
the needs of small businesses and their employees.
  I appreciated that he was advocating even for a business sector that 
isn't the core of his membership, but this is what he was hearing and 
what I think most of us are hearing.
  I support direct cash payments to low- and middle-income Americans 
and their dependents to help them through this crisis, and it is nice 
to hear there may be some agreement on that. I support strategies to 
provide grants and loans to small businesses, particularly if they use 
those resources to keep employees on the payroll. I hope direct support 
to individuals and small businesses will be the heart of the economic 
package that the Senate, the White House, and the House put together.
  Now, for the larger businesses and industry sectors who need Federal 
help, we have to stand ready to assist, but if we are to invest in 
these businesses yet again, a few years after providing them with 
massive and--in my view--unnecessary tax breaks, we must not simply 
rescue them but demand that they reform, and our investments must be 
designed to keep workers on payrolls to the maximum extent possible.
  The Business Roundtable, an influential voice for the business 
community, said last year that businesses need to expand their 
priorities beyond shareholder concerns and invest in employees by 
compensating them fairly, providing important benefits, and supporting 
communities they work in. I couldn't agree more. These businesses 
employ many Americans and deliver us important goods and services, but 
if American taxpayers are stepping in to cover their losses, I think it 
is fair to expect and, indeed, require that these businesses channel 
the benefits toward people who are on their payroll, who work for wages 
and salaries, not those who live off investment income.
  I will do all I can in the coming days to help shape our economic 
package to make it responsive to these goals.
  Fifth--and in this I echo some of the comments made by my colleague 
from Missouri--the crisis does raise long-term questions that must be 
addressed going forward. We have to have real discussions about the 
virtues and disadvantages of global interconnectedness. Better travel 
leads to economic growth and a better understanding of the world, and 
it also facilitates the spread of viruses. Instantaneous global 
communication networks are an economic plus but increase vulnerability 
to cyber attack.
  How do we increase American resilience to these threats without 
inhibiting our economic prospects? There

[[Page S1827]]

are elements of our supply chains--pharmaceuticals and medical products 
and supplies in particular--that must be viewed through a national 
security lens and progressively brought back to this country to enhance 
safety and an adequate supply of supplies in times like this.
  A second long-term question that has been raised for years by my 
Virginia colleague Senator Warner deals with the new reality of how 
Americans work. Many of the people most affected by this shock would be 
part-time and gig workers. The safety-net mechanisms that our policies 
provide for full-time workers who get a W-2 every year are not as 
available to the increasing percentage of the American workforce who 
are in multiple part-time jobs without benefits or who work as 
independent contractors or are otherwise self-employed.
  In addition to making sure that the economic relief package provides 
assistance to this large group of Americans, we have to examine our 
workforce policies so that these workers also have a social safety net 
to fall back on during times of crisis.
  Finally, every American needs to do their part to confront this 
crisis. The best way to slow the spread of COVID-19 and minimize its 
impact to individuals, to our healthcare system, and to our economy is 
to adhere to science-based social distancing and personal hygiene 
recommendations in our everyday lives.
  Because America is not an authoritarian nation, there are some 
options used by other nations that will not likely be used here. Our 
public health measures will depend upon the cooperation and adherence 
of every single person. Sacrifice is hard, but a modest sacrifice in 
the near term can help save the lives of people we love.
  So I implore every Virginian and every American to follow the 
recommendations we get from our public health officials and find ways 
to safely reach out and connect with friends and family during this 
challenging time.
  To my colleagues: We must rise to meet this challenge. This is one of 
the moments for which we were destined to be in the Senate. The people 
we serve are relying on us to calmly and promptly address a grave 
health crisis with the tools needed to keep families safe and protect 
the American economy. It is a serious responsibility. May we all live 
up to it.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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